Tuesday, July 24, 2012

DeWolfe's take on Strong Heroines you can Admire

Write Strong Heroines That Readers Can Admire

By Adrienne deWolfe

Thanks
to my Texas Trilogy, I developed a reputation for writing strong heroines that
Romance readers can admire.

Before
I started writing my debut novel, Texas Outlaw, I came across an
article in Romance Writers Report that
touted virginity as a woman's Badge of Honor.While I could certainly admire female characters that saved themselves
for their nuptial beds, I felt that the rest of Womanhood was being cheated by
the Badge of Honor idea.

In
history, as in modern-day life, women fell on hard times.Providers died; sweethearts went to war;
husbands walked away from their marriage vows.Sometimes, women let their hearts rule their heads and succumbed to
seduction.

Did these
circumstances make a woman unlovable?

Not in
my mind.In fact, I considered these
life experiences fascinating fodder for creating memorable heroines.

When
Fancy Holleday sprang into my mind, I was writing about an era in which life
was cheap and men were far from civilized (American West, circa 1875.)I envisioned Fancy as a woman who’d been
forced to overcome the stigma of her birth.She could “charm, seduce or just plain outsmart any man alive.”Although Fancy was no blushing maid, she yearned
to be loved.

When I
announced to my published friends that I was writing a Romance about a heroine who
had been born in a whorehouse, and who had been forced to rob a train to
survive, those authors told me that I would never get Texas Outlaw published.

“Readers
want to read about upstanding, virginal (pick your favorite adjective) heroines,”
my published friends told me.“Fancy’s
the kind of character who should be a sidekick.”

Sometimes
as an aspiring author, you have to ignore the naysayers and write the book that’s
in your heart.

Fancy
became the star of my debut novel.Bantam
Books published Texas Outlawto rave reviews.It became a finalist for two Rita Awards
(Romance Writers of America), and a Reviewer’s Choice Award (Romantic Times Magazine). Fancy herself
won the Honey of a Heroine Award (West Houston Chapter, RWA.)

Not too
shabby for a lady train robber whose story nobody wanted to read!

When
you’re writing characters from other eras, you must strike a balance between
historical accuracy and the sensibilities of the modern Romance reader.For instance, it’s a sad historical fact that
prostitutes in the American West (1865-1890) were, on average, the age of 14,
and few of those girls survived beyond the age of 18.

But how
Romantic is that? (Not very.)

Romance is an optimistic category of fiction.
It espouses values that are important to women: family, home,
love, children, community, career, and spirituality.In genre Romance, a woman is characterized as
“heroic” and is given power over her life. Readers know that they can open a Romance and
find a tale in which the girl gets the guy, and the guy will treasure her as a
woman.

Or a
woman like Texas Wildcat’s Bailey McShane.A tomboy.A sheep rancher. A hot-tempered,
gun-toting maverick in blue jeans, who was trying to keep her childhood friends
from starting a range war in drought-stricken Texas.

The
key to writing strong women whom readers can admire is to give your heroines vulnerabilities.You must show why a pretty young virgin
(Bailey) would burst into a cattlemen’s saloon, dressed in her daddy’s slouch
hat, with his shotgun clutched under her arm.Why is she mad?What’s she
fighting for? What’s at stake if she
fails?

You
must also show why a heroine – like Fancy or Rorie – initially shuns the love
that she secretly wants in her life.Who
hurt her?Why hasn’t she healed?What’s her “pay off” for refusing to love?To raise the emotional stakes even higher, you
must make your heroine sacrifice something before she can earn her happy
ending.

Let
me give you an example.

In my
fourth award-winning novel, Scoundrel for
Hire (ebook release:Summer 2012),
Silver Nichols is a wealthy Aspen socialite.Raised in poverty in Philadelphia, Silver worked hard to establish her
reputation as an erudite and influential woman among the nouveau riche.That
reputation would be irreparably damaged if she allowed herself to marry a
penniless rogue, who’s running from the law.

But
who did I give Silver to love?Wily Rafe
Jones, a Shakespearean actor and con man with a bourbon-smooth Kentucky drawl.In the novel’s climax, Silver must face the
fact that Rafe’s love is more important to her than wealth, status, and her
upstanding reputation.If she does not accept
this truth, Silver will lose Rafe forever.

Readers
buy Romance novels because they want to immerse themselves in the vicarious
thrill of falling in love.The object of
their desire is the hero, but the star of the show is the heroine.

If a
reader is going to accept your assignment to “live” inside the skin of your
heroine, reward that reader by writing a strong woman character that can be admired
-- and remembered -- long after your story ends.

omnific

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